It Wasn't Supposed To Be This Way
by pancake-potch
Summary: Glenn finds himself in the Greene family farm and falls for the youngest girl, Beth
1. Chapter 1

**Yeah, I'm sorry about this. I saw a Tumblr post, and I couldn't shake this pair.**

Glenn Rhee wasn't much before the apocalypse. Well, he wasn't all that special, anyway. He delivered pizzas, he had an apartment where he spent his off time fooling around on the Internet and playing video games. He told his parents that he'd go back to college- next term, or maybe the term after. He wasn't much, but he didn't have any regrets. Maybe that wasn't entirely true. He had heard rumors about a PlayStation 4 and he kinda wishes the world had waited to turn to shit for at least a couple more years, so he could get his hands on _that_.

He also regrets not being able to say goodbye to his parents and his sisters, but he tries to not dwell on that too hard.

But, now he has a new group- a new family. He couldn't protect his real family, so he's going to try his best for his new one. He may not be the most badass around here, but he can pull his weight. He's clever and fast, and there's something to be said for that. And he _cares_. Not like Rick cares about keeping them all safe, or like Lori cares about them having clean clothes, or like Daryl cares about his crossbow, or like Shane cares about Lori (yeah, he's noticed that).

He watches his group, and he cares about them all. His heart breaks for Carol when they couldn't find Sophia that first day. His heart breaks for Rick, because he knows he tried to keep her safe. And, he's willing to admit that Lori is right. They do look to Rick, but when he's not perfect, they're all eager to blame him. He wished he could say something to quell the simmering anger in the group, but he just can't. He has no idea what to say.

Then out of nowhere, a girl on a horse says that Lori needs to come with her- that Carl has been shot. And when he takes T to the farm where Lori, Rick, Shane, and Carl are, he meets that same brunette girl. She's tough, he knows. Tough in her own way, and he admires that. He goes into this sprawling farmhouse to find Carl in a strange bedroom, splayed out against the white sheets, his red blood a stark contrast. Rick barely acknowledges their presence.

He cringes as he admits to Maggie (the brunette on the horse) that someone among them that has had 'the clap' regularly enough to get antibiotics. She takes it all in stride as she refills their coffee cups.

He sighs at their dining room table as he watches T-Dog get stitched up, and it isn't until he sees a blonde girl shyly ask if they're hungry. Glenn feels like his tongue is too large for his mouth because he has never before seen such a pretty girl before. Her eyes are so big and blue and her hair is golden. She's like a modern day, post- apocalyptic Eowyn, he thinks to himself. He wants to ask her name, or really ask her anything, but he can't seem to form words. He shakes his head, and reminds himself that there are much more important things going on.

After he plunges himself in the well, and during his trek into town on a horse, Glenn wants to ask about Maggie's sister. She's young, Glenn knows. That Jimmy guy might be her boyfriend, but there is something he just can't shake about their relationship. Glenn's never been "in love," as they say, but he can certainly recognize tolerance and indifference.

No, Glenn has never been "in love," but he knows he needs to be around Beth more.


	2. Chapter 2

Glenn can almost literally feel the awkwardness during dinner inside Hershel's house. He volunteered to sit at the card table next to the real dining room table, making a joke that Asians don't age like others, and that he doesn't mind siting at the kid's table. Maggie, Beth, and _Jimmy_ sit at the table too. He wants to enjoy his first real dinner on an actual plate since this whole thing started, but it's hard to do that because all he hears are the clearing of throats and the sound of forks scraping on plates.

He wants to clear the tension, so he asks if anyone can play the guitar because Dale found one, and he's met with Patricia's sigh and declaration that Otis knew how. He can feel himself redden, and he stares at his plate. Maggie senses what Glenn is trying to do, and mentions that Bethy can play a little and that she's a great singer. Glenn cocks his head in Beth's direction and asks if she can show him sometime. Her huge 'anime eyes', as Glenn calls them, flutter down to her plate and says yeah, she could. Jimmy doesn't notice the exchange, but Glenn can tell Hershel is paying attention by the way he shifts in his seat. He just can't help himself as he smiles at her and Beth smiles back at him, too.

He helps clean up the table, and he can tell Hershel watches his movements. He tries to overcompensate by being _too_ helpful and ends up spilling leftovers onto the floor. Patricia smiles politely and tells him not to worry about it, and she'll clean it up. Glenn shoves his hands into his pockets and apologizes. He walks out the front door without turning around. He stops when he gets to the porch and sighs as he rests his elbows on the railing. He groans, and buries his face in his hands. What was his problem exactly? He was attracted to some farmer's daughter who was young (he wasn't sure how young) who also had a boyfriend. Maybe he should just go ahead and lower himself back into that well without the aid of a rope.

A sweet voice asks if he's okay, and he turns around to find 'Eowyn' easing herself onto one of the chairs. He stammers something about being okay, and sometimes you have to be. Her smile is so stunning, and he wonders to himself when he ever thought a girl's smile as 'stunning.' He finds himself drifting to the seat next to her, looking at his awkwardly shuffling feet in the process. They sit in silence for a moment before she asks where the guitar is. Without being able to stop himself, he asks if her boyfriend knows where she is.

She rolls her eyes a bit at his question, and her smile falters. She looks at him and explains they've only been dating a few months before everything, and that he had taken refuge at her house. She shrugs, and Glenn knows it really was indifference that he observed. Not indifference at Jimmy's existence, at all. It just wasn't some zombie apocalypse love story.

She shyly asks if he wants to take a walk with her, and as much as he wants to, he reminds her that it may not be that safe. She tells him of the fences surrounding the property, and that it'll be okay. Glenn hesitates before asking what her father might say, but she shrugs that off, too. He doesn't want to get on Hershel's bad side, considering Carl's condition, but he also can't help the desire to wander off into the dark with this girl.

Glenn follows her down the porch steps. They walk together without saying anything, but he steals glances at her every now and again. She leads him away from her house and away from his camp, and they stand in a field with nothing but ankle high grass and the moon overhead.

He stares up at the sky before turning his attention to her. He says her name because he wants her permission to kiss her. Or maybe hold her hand. Or _anything_, really. She looks at him, and he's so taken aback by her beauty that he's almost at a loss for words. Instead of asking what he really wants, he asks how old she is.

She looks slightly confused as she admits she's almost seventeen. He groans internally this time, and it explains why her father is so defensive. Granted, he knows the age of consent in Georgia in sixteen (he was asking for a friend) but that doesn't stop him from telling her that maybe they should head back.

She grasps his wrist and asks him to wait. She likes the quiet, and looks down at her Converse before admitting that she likes being with him, too. He takes a deep breath, and starts to say her name again so he can convince her that it's better that they go back, but the next thing Glenn knows, she's on her toes with her lips pressed against his.

He kisses her back because he just can't help it. She's so small and sweet, and when she pushes her tongue into his mouth, he can't help but breathe her in and wrap his arms around her. He mumbles her name in between breaths, and he can feel her push herself against him. He goes to kiss her deeper, but his hat gets in the way enough for Beth to giggle at the clumsiness of their position. He gets the hint and takes it off before holding her to him again. Her hand at her side slips the hat out of his grasp. He doesn't even realize she's taken it until she pulls away from him, and places it on her own head.

He tells her that's his favorite possession, and she says she'll take good care of it. The way she looks at him while she says that drives him to some sort of brink of insanity.


	3. Chapter 3

The farm gets overrun. They try to keep it going, take it back. The first person Glenn sees is Maggie, so he hops in the car and she drives that Hyundai around while he's trying to shoot as many walkers as he can. He thinks about Beth. There was no time to track where she's gone, but he knows she's safe. She _has_ to be. He was looking for her when this all started, but everything became jumbled, and now Maggie's crying in the car and he is trying to reassure her. They'll find her sister and her dad, he says. She just nods, her hands shaking. He takes over driving, and it occurs to him to go to the part of the highway where they had left the signs for Sophia.

They pull up as Daryl does, and he almost bursts into tears when Lori, T, and Beth stumble out of the car. Glenn's little blonde warrior princess made it. He sees her running to her dad. He wants to comfort her, too. He wants to so badly, but he asks about Andrea instead. She isn't here, and he knows she's somewhere. _Don't leave anyone behind_. That's his personal motto, but Rick says otherwise.

It's cold, this dawn. Now Glenn realizes that Andrea, Shane, Patricia, and even Jimmy are gone. Just gone. It hits Glenn in a way that nothing else has.

_They're gone. _

And that's when Beth flings herself into his arms. She's sobbing and looking to him for comfort. He embraces her and holds her as close as his physical being can manage. There's an ache in his chest like he's never felt before. He closes his eyes, and tries to absorb her pain, leech it out of her. Hershel sees them, now. Glenn knows he _really_ sees. And after what happened after the bar and Randall and the barn, he hopes Hershel won't cut him down. He's ready though. Ready to take on whatever her father has to say.

Instead, Hershel gives him a small smile. That smile relieves Glenn of whatever tension he was feeling on top of the crippling fear as the farm fell.

Now that they're (mostly) together, Rick decides it's time to move on.

0o0

They've stayed together on the road all winter. They've all become hardened. Tough in they're own ways. Even _his girl_, because Glenn can call her that now,has toughened up. She's still soft where it counts. She's eager to comfort and gentle in touch. He knows because he sleeps next to her every night no matter where they are. They seek each other after being apart during runs or watches. But that's all they do, just _sleep _next to each other. They steal intimate touches and kisses in the brief and delicate private time they get together. Glenn and Beth have tried several times to consummate their relationship, but are always interrupted.

But, it doesn't bother him, and he's pretty sure it doesn't bother her. Their day-to-day lives and constant proximity to each other help them grow together. More intimate than if it had grown from a physical relationship. At least, that's what they tell each other in whispers in front of the fire.

Nobody questions the connection they share. Hershel or Maggie, the two that count don't say anything. Glenn and Beth love each other, that much is clear- and that's all that matters.

0o0

Once they took the prison, it goes without saying that Glenn and Beth will share a cell. They glance around nervously at each other, and at the bunks. She sits on the bottom bunk and he smiles down at her. It's their first private place they've had. Well, private in that it's a separate room…right next to other people's rooms. When he sits down next to her, he wraps his arms around her and sighs. This could be what they've been looking for this whole time. Somewhere _safe_. _Really safe_.

The group decides that tomorrow will be the day they push further into the prison, so everyone takes the bunks they've claimed as their own for maybe the first real good night's sleep they've had since the farm. Glenn holds Beth under the thin sleeping bag they have on the dirty prison mattress, and he couldn't be happier. When Beth turns around and smiles at him, it takes all his willpower not to tear her clothes off right then and there. She runs her fingertips up his dirty shirt and presses her lips against his.

Glenn tells Beth he loves her. They've never said it out loud to each other, because they've never had to. He was hers and she was his. He hopes she doesn't think he said that because he's going to clear, and that it's dangerous, but because he does. He's so hopelessly in love with her. She gives him the smile that could stop a war when she says she loves him too. They need and want each other, but the safety and comfort the prison brings lulls them both to sleep.

0o0

The stress and the anxiety of the next few days keep them apart. Hershel lost his leg, and Glenn was there to witness it. He tried to tell Beth that it was necessary and that he'll be fine, but he doesn't need to. He finds her in their cell sewing Hershel's pants up. He thought he couldn't lover her more, but when he sees her determination, he knows that maybe-just maybe they could get though all this together. Together in a…well…_marital way._ Maybe, she would agree to be his wife in this world. He loves that she's the hope and light at the end of the world. She may be young, but she's not stupid. This is what this new world needs, he thinks.

_Hope_.

It isn't until Hershel is up and walking and Beth is hunched over their makeshift kitchen that Glenn decides that now is the time. He's already talked to Hershel, who just chuckled and slapped him on the back that makes him think that it's all going to be okay.

So he takes all the courage he can muster to tap her on the shoulder. Beth curiously looks behind her, and when she sees who it is she smiles. Glenn wants to be romantic, or smooth, or witty, but all he can do is hold up the ring. It's the biggest ring he found (on a walker) and it's spit shined to the extreme. Beth looks at it in his hand then looks at his face. He still can't say words, like actual words, but he smiles at her. She can't say words either, because all she does is nod her head and jump into his arms.

It's a zombie apocalypse marriage, and that night their bed is no longer just for sleeping.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be, but Glenn wouldn't have had it any other way.


End file.
